Customer Reviews

John Deere Tractor

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To some critics and fans (I am one), Larry Sparks's John Deere Tractor, originally issued in 1980 and available now in CD for the first time, is among the greatest bluegrass albums ever recorded. Hearing it again for the first time in a long while, I am struck anew by its grace and beauty. Sparks has done many worthy recordings since, but none to match this one.

The music is superb, but never flashy, the emphasis always on Sparks's voice -- sort of like Carter Stanley's but with a pronounced blues edge -- and on the perfectly selected songs and instrumentals. The title track, a Lawrence Hammond composition telling yet again the eternal tale of the homesick country boy trapped in the big city, takes on an almost epic quality in Sparks's deceptively laconic reading. Through restraint and understatement he manages to speak to the authentic pain behind a real experience -- the real world is full of homesick country boys -- that, in less capable hands, would sound sappy and cliched.

Beyond this opening track, Sparks explores sorrow and hope moving comfortably through gospel, country, and folk, always within an assured, distinctive bluegrass sensibility. "Great High Mountain" sounds like an ancient Appalachian hymn but was actually written by a very young Keith Whitley. "Making Believe," the country heart song memorably covered by Buck Owens and, later, Emmylou Harris, here gets a near-definitive reading. "Carter's Blues," a haunting Anglo-American folk song from the Carter Family repertoire, is reimagined as a spare, contemplative instrumental, with Sparks displaying his extraordinary guitar-picking skills without ever showing off.

The air is sweet and pure on this great high mountain.

This album is a traditional masterpiece with some contemperary hints thrown in, in just the right spaces. With the tight instrument work and the high lonesome sound of Larry Sparks and his "Lonesome Ramblers", Id say this is a masterpiece worthy of remembering in the history of Bluegrass.

On first hearing the title track in 1981, I started to weep - and I still do feel tearful every time I hear it 25 years later. Larry's reading of this beautiful song reflects the sorrow of the lyric perfectly. It's a masterful showcase of how powerful an instrument of expression the human voice can be. In an age when clowns like Morrissey are feted as great vocalists by clueless critics, then you should make sure you own this if you want to hear how soulfully a white guy really can sing!

Larry Sparks is, I believe, the greatest living bluegrass singer (it's now 2006), with the possible exception of Ralph Stanley, if it is correct to call the latter a "bluegrass singer." This was probably already true in 198o. This is probably his best album.

"John Deere Tractor" is a take on the most classic bluegrass theme there is: the loss of home, and the sense of displacement felt by a "country boy" living in the city. It's also the only non-bluegrass song on the album, and a ballad to boot. Thus, it's an odd choice for the first song, but in practice it's perfect.

"Girl at the Crossroads Bar" is the definitive reading of a Bluegrass Cardinals song.

"Hot Sauce" is an instrumental that sounds a lot like "Ragtime Annie."

"I'd Rather be Alone" is a Flatt and Scruggs standard that here sounds like it was written for Sparks.

"Great High Mountain," written by Keith Whitley, gets its definitive reading here.

"Love of the Mountains" is a song by an obscure band called Lost and Found that Sparks here turns into a standard.

"Making Believe" is a slow and powerful country song.

"Nobody's Business" is a quick take on an old standard.

"When I Lay My Burdens Down" is a gospel with near-acapella singing by Sparks that is bluesy and moving.

And the final instrumental, "Carter's Blues," rounds out the album with a smooth, rolling rhythm and an immediately accessible melody.

This is a bluegrass classic that many non-bluegrass fans can appreciate, due to material like the title track, "Great High Mountain," and "When I Lay my Burdens Down" which depart from the usual bluegrass style.